Seasonal and multiannual dynamics of rodent species number under the influence of climate factors and anthropic modifications

The research was carried out in agricultural experiment stations in the central area of the Republic of Moldova during a period of 35 years. It was determined that cyclic oscillations with an interval of 3-4 years are not typical of Microtus arvalis, as can be seen in other parts of the area. Intense anthropogenic influence determines the type of numerical dynamics. A certain periodicity is observed in the species Mus spicilegus, but during the last 30 years the dynamics has become acyclic. In the populations of the species Apodemus sylvaticus there was a more pronounced periodicity of the oscillation of the herd, once every two years.

Four master teachers who fostered American turn-of-the-(20TH)-century mycology and plant pathology

The Morrill Act of 1862 afforded the US states the opportunity to found state colleges with agriculture as part of their mission—the so-called "land-grant colleges." The Hatch Act of 1887 gave the same opportunity for agricultural experiment stations as functions of the land-grant colleges, and the "third Morrill Act" (the Smith-Lever Act) of 1914 added an extension dimension to the experiment stations. Overall, the end of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th was a time for growing appreciation for, and growth of institutional education in the natural sciences, especially botany and its specialties, mycology, and phytopathology. This paper outlines a particular genealogy of mycologists and plant pathologists representative of this era. Professor Albert Nelson Prentiss, first of Michigan State then of Cornell, Professor William Russel Dudley of Cornell and Stanford, Professor Mason Blanchard Thomas of Wabash College, and Professor Herbert Hice Whetzel of Cornell Plant Pathology were major players in the scenario. The supporting cast, the students selected, trained, and guided by these men, was legion, a few of whom are briefly traced here.

Land-grant lessons for Anthropocene universities

Established amidst the bloodshed of the Civil War, land-grant universities, together with the associated agricultural experiment stations and cooperative extension services, have played a crucial role in democratizing scientific knowledge and addressing intertwined educational, environmental, economic, and democratic challenges within the USA. Indeed, they have arguably pioneered the idea of “usable science.” Today, the urgent challenges of the Anthropocene demand a more robust relationship between scientific research and on-the-ground action, strong networks sharing local lessons globally, and channels for injecting global, long-term perspectives into the noise of short-termism. The land-grant experience provides lessons for “Anthropocene universities” seeking to tackle these challenges, including the importance of (1) establishing or expanding university-based boundary organizations akin to cooperative extension, (2) incentivizing the integration of engagement into the university’s research, teaching, and service missions, (3) centering values of democracy, justice, equity, and inclusion in engagement, and (4) cooperating across institutions and sectors. Given the urgency of fully engaging academic institutions as players and connectors in the real-world challenges of addressing climate change and biodiversity loss, there is little time to waste.

Fascist Pigs

“Fascist Pigs” investigates the breeding of new animals and plants embodying fascism. It details the role of technoscientific organisms in the national battles for food independence launched by Mussolini, Salazar, and Hitler, the first large scale mobilizations of the three fascist regimes. The narrative transforms the fascist “back to the land” into a modernist experiment involving geneticists and their organisms (wheat, potatoes, pigs), mass propaganda for peasants and urban consumers, and overgrown bureaucratic structures. In contrast to the generalized emphasis on race, it brings food to the forefront of a renewed understanding of fascism.The fascist obsession with land translated also into violent imperial quests for Lebensraum in Europe and Africa. The book unveils how agricultural experiment stations in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Auschwitz were central for putting in place colonial forced labor schemes for the production of coffee, cotton, and rubber. The story of karakul sheep standardized by scientists at the University of Halle goes a step further. It follows sheep around into Germany, Ukraine, South West Africa, Libya, and Angola, connecting through the travels of a single organism the white settler stories and frontier genocide of the three fascist regimes.This is not a study about what happened to scientists under fascism, but one that by following the historical trajectories of technoscientific organisms reveals how new forms of life intervened in the formation and expansion of fascism.